Chapter 4
I moved into a small, safe apartment the FBI recommended.
No cameras.
No big estate.
Just two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a small balcony with potted herbs.
Rosa moved in with me.
Said she’d never work for the Carters again.
Said she’d stay as long as I needed her.
My parents came over every day.
My mom cooked.
My dad fixed the leaky faucet in the bathroom.
For the first time since I married Ethan, I felt safe.
I could leave my doors unlocked.
I could sleep through the night without checking over my shoulder.
But the peace didn’t last.
I woke up at 7 a.m. to a call from my bank.
All my accounts were frozen.
Every last dollar.
Savings.
Checking.
The small trust fund my grandparents left me.
Gone.
Ten minutes later, my mom called, sobbing.
The county had put a lien on their house.
Said there were unpaid back taxes dating back five years.
They had 72 hours to pay $180,000 or lose the home they’d lived in for 30 years.
I knew immediately.
Martha.
She still had access to Ethan’s legal team.
She was using every trick she had to break me.
Then my phone rang again.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Martha’s voice.
Cold.
Smooth.
“Told you I’d make you pay,” she said. “By noon tomorrow, you’ll have no money. Your parents will be homeless. And Ethan’s lawyers will have the charges dropped by the end of the week. You should have stayed in that cage, Charlotte. You should have kept your mouth shut.”
She hung up.
I sat down on the couch.
My hands were shaking.
Rosa brought me a glass of water.
“What do we do?” she asked.
I thought for a second.
Then I remembered.
The account numbers.
All the ones I’d scratched on the tag.
Ethan’s accounts.
Martha’s accounts.
The secret offshore accounts they thought no one knew about.
I called Agent Torres.
She answered on the first ring.
“Martha froze all my accounts,” I said. “Put a lien on my parents’ house. I need you to file an emergency asset freeze on every single account Ethan and Martha own. All the ones from the tag. Every last one. Right now.”
Agent Torres didn’t hesitate.
“On it,” she said. “Call me back in an hour.”
I paced the apartment for 60 minutes.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
The baby kicked, like it was pacing with me.
My phone rang.
Agent Torres.
“Done,” she said. “Every account frozen. We also filed an emergency motion to lift the lien on your parents’ house. The judge signed it 10 minutes ago. The county is removing it as we speak. And Charlotte? We found more. Martha has been siphoning money from Ethan’s businesses for years. She’s just as guilty as he is. We’re drafting a warrant for her arrest right now.”
I collapsed onto the couch, crying.
Relief.
Pure, overwhelming relief.
By noon, my accounts were unfrozen.
My parents called, laughing and crying, saying the lien was gone.
Rosa made us all lunch.
Tomato soup.
Grilled cheese.
The same thing she used to make me when I was a kid and had a bad day.
That afternoon, there was a knock on the door.
Two police officers.
They held a piece of paper.
“Martha Carter was arrested 20 minutes ago,” one said. “Conspiracy to commit murder, fraud, embezzlement, and witness tampering. She’s in custody. No bail.”
I closed my eyes.
One more monster off the streets.
That night, we sat around the small kitchen table.
My parents.
Rosa.
Me.
We ate leftover soup.
Talked about the future.
My dad held my hand, rubbed my belly.
“Grandpa’s going to teach this little one to fish,” he said, smiling. “And build them a treehouse. The biggest one in the whole state.”
I looked around the table.
At the people who loved me.
Who’d stood by me.
I thought about Ethan and Martha, alone in jail cells.
I didn’t feel bad.
Not even a little.
May you like
They’d made their choices.
Now they’d live with them.
